Statement by the Prime Minister.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 7 January 1911, Page 4

Statement by the Prime Minister.

THE NEW ZEALAND FIVE MTL-

LIONS LOAN. The Right Hon. the Premier, Sir Joseph Ward, when passing through Timarn, was asked by a. Post representative to give a reply to the Opposition criticism concerning the £5,000,000 loan. Sir Joseph is reported as saying, in reply :—"The criticism you mention is ahsolute ruhlrish. ' From New • Zealand's point of view the loan was a distinct success. We got our money at the rate agreed upon, 3?r per cent, and we got it- placed at a time when the Bank of England rate was 5 per cent cent in London. Anyone talking about the loan not being a success must either be steeped in prejudice up to the eyes or else he blind to what is a distinctly successful operation covering an amount larger than New Zealand has ever dealt with "before in a single loan. It does not require inn oh in the shape of knowledge to understand that when the Bank of England rate was oper cent to the people at Home, and New Zealand got its money at 3-J per cent the transaction was a distinctly fine .one from this country's point of view, and the critics of the loan must give the London financiers, who underwrote the loan, credit for knowing their own i.usiness. If the New Zealand stocks wore not good property, the underwriters would certainly not have underwritten the loan at 3J per cent, and unless they knew that in the event of the whole amount not being taken up by the puhlic, they could dispose of it privately, at advantageous periods, at a profit. And as a matter of fact, since then, considerable sales, at a, profit have taken place. The people who condemn the loan," said Sir Joseph in conclusion, "have apparently the one object in view, viz., to decry everything that the Government does."